The fan who said farewell to the fat
WHEN overweight Newcastle United fan Joe Jensen had to squeeze through the turnstiles to watch his team play, he realised something had to change.
Stuffing down whatever he could, Joe ballooned to 23 stone 8lbs and was in XXXXL clothing.
Realising he needed to lose weight, he joined the Man v Fat Football programme.
Being signed up to a football team made up of guys wanting to shed the flab, he was on a mission to get to his goal weight.
Now Joe has lost over nine stone and is down to 14 stone 4lbs which allows him to slide through the turnstiles with ease now to watch the Magpies play.
“I’ve got to be honest and say that before Man v Fat Football life was just ‘normal’ – ever since primary school I’d always been overweight so it had become the norm. I didn’t think about what I would eat or drink, I just bought it and ate it,” said Joe, 32, of Newcastle.
“Despite being massively overweight, morbidly obese to put it in medical terms, I was still moderately active but some activities when volunteering with the Scouts became more tricky and I had long since given up playing sport.
“I had to shop at specialist big and tall ranges and might as well have had shares in one well known high street store for bigger guys. It really limited the choice of new clothes I could get.”
The call centre leader added: “I can’t point to one eureka or lightbulb moment when I made the crucial decision that things had to change. For me it was a combination of factors building up over time. Having to look at XXXXL clothes instead of XXXL as the weight was building, the guy on the turnstile at St James’ Park making a snide remark as I squeezed through, and feeling like I was going to collapse after getting an enthusiastically applauded rounder on a work charity day. I also had the holiday of a lifetime booked for six months’ time, so it seemed like an ideal time to make a change for the better.”
Joe saw the Man V Fat Football initiative on Facebook and decided to join up.
“It was nerve-wracking signing up for it by myself but the league coach quickly got in touch and there was no looking back. I turned up on registration night to a long queue leading to a set of scales. Had it not been for guys in the queue who were returning for the new season chatting to me I may have freaked, walked out and never returned.
“When I joined the Newcastle league it had already been running for a couple of seasons. There were six continuing teams and then two teams of brand new players. At first, I was nervous as we were all completely new to it but we quickly settled in and everyone from across every team was really supportive of each other.
“As a newly formed team, we really struggled on the pitch. But off the pitch we lost shedloads of weight.
“As a team, we won the weight loss league and I was the ‘top loser.’ We’ve had a few players come and go but we finished our third season – winning the football league, combined football and weight loss league and I was the ‘top loser’ again, which I was really chuffed with. We had four of the top 10 weight loss scorers, so that team spirit has worked wonders.”
And he added: “Losing the weight and improving my fitness has had a colossal impact on my life.
“I’ve achieved multiple goals, I’ve played on the hallowed turf of St James’ Park, I’ve run – well, jogged – the world-famous Blaydon Race, I’ve bought normalsized clothes from normal shops and I can slip through the turnstiles at the football with finesse now.”
Losing the weight and improving my fitness has had a colossal impact on my life Joe Jensen